A share-first-plan-second policy for efficient cooperation in a multi-modal transportation corridor

Cooperation in transportation networks has been a cornerstone of policies towards more sustainable transportation, aiming to improve the modal split and increase the fill rates of transportation resources. Effective cooperation between transportation firms requires some form of joint planning, which is often challenging to implement from an IT perspective and difficult to sustain due to the reliance on advanced planning software. In this paper, we present a simple but effective policy for cooperative transportation that does not require a complex joint optimization of operations. In this share-first-plan-second policy, cooperating firms first develop a cyclic schedule for a fleet of shared transportation resources and then assign their shipments to the transportation resources in real time. The policy performs nearly as well as a jointly optimized planning of operations while not requiring advanced IT systems and planning software. Finally, the share-first-plan-second policy exhibits robustness against deviations from planned transport operations, enhancing its practical applicability.